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Wednesday, February 25, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
LETTERS
Continued from page 2
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To the Editor:
I am not one to publicly express my opin-
ion, however, Mr. Ken Serkownek, you evi-
dently don’t know Mrs. Anttila, and have con-
fused her with someone else.
She has never written an editorial in The
Nugget, has never said she is against trail
projects, nor is she vitriolic or disrespectful.
Quite the contrary, she is a woman of integ-
rity, practices what she preaches, is prin-
cipled, open-minded, thorough and brave.
She has expressed one request since 2012, to
allow Crossroads, and the Sisters community,
an opportunity to comment on the proposed
paved trail project.
Leaders of the paved trail project described
community input as “premature” in 2012, and
“too late” in 2013. After recognizing process
mistakes, the SHS-to-Crossroads project was
dropped in June 2014.
In September 2014, during the USFS
paved trail “Open Objection Period” Mrs.
Anttila commented; to allow everyone oppor-
tunity to give input, not just one person or one
group, to start the process over. She has never
wavered from this same request. In October
2014, the Sisters District Ranger withdrew
the Tollgate-to-BBR paved trail decision, the
objection reviewing officer concurred, stating,
a broader community-led process to identify
desired trails would help the Forest Service
proceed, with a clearer path to successful
implementation of new non-motorized trails.
I don’t believe that name-calling is a pro-
active way to start a new trail process. Our
public schools have a zero-tolerance on bul-
lying and so should this community. I suggest
those who continue to bully be recused from
participating in the new community-led trail
process.
Rather than portray Mrs. Anttila as “vitri-
olic,” disrespect Mr. Wertz, Mr. Fisher, and
others who speak out, we should be thank-
ful and acknowledge these courageous peo-
ple who still defend our basic Constitutional
rights, private property and due process, even
when it’s not popular.
While my mom enjoys hikes, is an advo-
cate for a healthy forest environment and has
always been fond of Smoky the Bear, she is an
even greater supporter of honesty, responsibil-
ity, and respect. My mom is a leader, realistic
and someone to look up to.
I personally believe that “if you don’t have
something nice (or constructive) to say, don’t
say anything at all.”
Chelsea Anttila
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To the Editor:
Re: “Don’t fall for the grandparents scam,”
The Nugget, February 18, page 7:
Jim Cornelius’ article was spot-on for
us, as we also had that experience last week
ourselves.
He’s right: the caller is very, very smooth
and convincing. Ours too came from a grand-
son surprisingly (but believably) in Mexico
at “the consulate” but with jail an imminent
prospect for drug possession. It went on for a
few minutes, which gave us time to analyze
the voice and consider what we were hearing.
But before we got to the demand to wire
money we both thought to ask some ques-
tions. Jan asked to name his brother, for which
the caller gave a name, but of course failed.
It’s a very easy con, but one to also easily
dismiss if you’re really aware.
Frank Baldwin
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To the Editor:
Sisters City Council re: Food carts: Please
provide an opportunity for the community
to speak to you about this important issue.
Please place it on the council agenda as a pub-
lic hearing event so that the community will
clearly know you WANT to hear from them.
If improving public outreach is truly a goal
of the council, this is one way of achieving it.
By now you have had an opportunity to
review the signatures on the petition pre-
sented at the February 12 council meeting.
You have also had an opportunity to review
a legal opinion authored by Bend attorney
Michael Peterkin. Even a casual reading of
See LEttERS on page 13
Weather changing —
but not much
By Ron thorkildson
Correspondent
For the past two solid
months a broad-scale weather
pattern has been anchored
over the U.S., causing nearly
unprecedented warm and
dry conditions in the west
and extreme snow and cold
in the eastern part of the
country.
A large bubble of warm
air aloft has persisted along
the west coast, pushing the
jet stream far to the north into
northern British Columbia
and Alaska. On the backside
of this ridge the jet stream
then plunges southward,
dragging with it bitterly cold
air into the eastern third of
the U.S.
This weather pattern has
occurred many times before,
but it’s the extended duration
that has captured the atten-
tion of many. Drought con-
ditions continue to worsen
in California along with
very low snowpacks, in
some cases no snow, in the
mountain west. Conversely,
Boston, Massachusetts,
has never before had this
much snow in the month of
February.
Here in Sisters, January
precipitation totals were two
inches below normal, and a
quarter of an inch short so
far in February. December
actually registered above
normal precipitation lev-
els, but warm temperatures
caused most of it to fall as
rain, even in the mountains.
To date, February tem-
peratures are a good seven
degrees Fahrenheit above
normal.
The big question is how
much longer will this warm,
dry weather last? The hon-
est answer is no one knows
for sure. But early last week
medium-range weather
models were hinting that
by March the strong ridge
that’s been holding Pacific
storm systems at bay might
collapse and allow a more
normal progression of low-
pressure systems to approach
from the west.
Since then, however,
most of the models are now
suggesting that the ridge
will maintain its amplitude
but retrograde (shift west-
ward) into the eastern Pacific
Ocean. Should this hap-
pen, Central Oregon would
likely be subjected to minor
amounts of precipitation
as a weak system or two
drops down from the north
bringing much cooler tem-
peratures and lower snow
levels.
By the end of the first
week in March, the ridge
may indeed break down,
paving the way for more
substantial moisture to over-
spread the Pacific Northwest.
The Climate Prediction
Center is forecasting warm
and dry conditions to persist
through March.
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